


Goodbye Gale

by Tortellini



Category: Hunger Games Trilogy - Suzanne Collins
Genre: Book 3: Mockingjay, Conversations, District 13 (Hunger Games), F/M, Friendship, Friendship/Love, Male-Female Friendship, Movie 4: Mockingjay Part 2, POV First Person, Psychological Trauma, Soldiers, Trauma, War, Wordcount: 100-500
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-02
Updated: 2020-07-02
Packaged: 2021-03-04 01:42:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 568
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24985525
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tortellini/pseuds/Tortellini
Summary: Before Gale goes away from District 13, he talks to Johanna Mason one more time.Oneshot/drabble
Relationships: Gale Hawthorne/Johanna Mason
Kudos: 3





	Goodbye Gale

For once, the roof was welcoming. Almost always empty—but sometimes just lonely. It was ironic: I had been alone in this goddamn Capitol hell simply nicknamed The Prison for a little over a year. I had Peeta (with his goody-two-shoes wisdom), Annie Cresta (who was more or less insane too—er, “mentally unstable”), and…Effie. Effie was a Capitol wench to begin with, but…she had changed in there. I don’t know why she took it worse; was it because she was Capitol—or she was the only one of all of us who wasn’t a victor…?

Well, she (and Haymitch) were both lucky she was alive, that’s for sure. Even more so than the rest of us.

Anyway, I had been alone for about fourteen months in that goddamn hell…and yet usually I welcomed the solitude. Not today, though. I sighed and leaned my elbows on the little ledge by the roof, lost in thought: how easy it would be to jump…

“Mind if I join you, Private Mason?”

A smirk curled my lips. “Don’t really have a choice, now do I, Hawthorne?”

Gale stepped up next to me and for a moment, we were lost in watching our clouds of breath puff and mix.

“I’m going to go away.” He said softly after awhile.

I glanced sideways at him. “I don’t mind company that much, y’ know—I’m not telling you to leave.”

He gave a sad smile. “Not that, Jo—I-I’m leaving. Thirteen.”

“What?” I shot up. “You’re kidding! You’re one of the few people I can hold a civilized conversation without threats from my gun, or—“

“—stripping. Yes, I heard the stories from Katniss, before…”

“That’s not what I was going to say.” I huffed, before softening. “That’s what this is about, isn’t it? Katniss and-and that little girl.”

“Prim.” He whispered faintly, dark eyes vacant. “I knew her my whole life. She was only fourteen… And I killed her.” 

“By accident, if so.”

“It was my bomb!” he cried.

“Or Beetee’s.” I said indifferently, shrugging. “Listen, Gale. You’re an okay kid. You never had to go into the Hunger Games, unlike most of the people you know. And you’re a hunter, am I right?” 

“Well…yeah.”

“You know who survives and who doesn’t. Hell, you’ve been through a bombing and lived!” I paused. “She was a nice little kid; I worked with her in the hospital for a bit, with Annie and her mum Cassia, when they said I had to recuperate. Anyway, she was decent. But she _just wasn’t a survivor._ Simple as that.”

Gale looked at me angrily. “How can you say that?! How can you be so cruel?!”

I smiled bitterly. “All my family is dead, Gale. Everyone I loved, or have ever loved, has been ripped from me and stomped on, while I survive. _That’s_ how I can say that.”

He stared, open-mouthed yet accepting. “I’m sorry…”

“Don’t be.” I said coldly. “They’re in a better place. And I’m not close to anyone, so it won’t happen again.” 

He was behind me. I felt his warm breath on my neck, my ears, on my head where my hair had almost (but not quite) grown back all the way…

“Well.” He cleared his throat. “I just…I just came to say goodbye, Johanna.” He turned to go off the roof.

“Bye, Gale,” I whispered to the wind.


End file.
